CMA Music Festival gets off to a fan-packed start

Click to see a gallery of Thursday photos from the CMA Music Festival (this image of CMA fans: Samuel M. Simpkins/The Tennessean).

What looks to the untrained eye like a shoulder-to-shoulder sweat-fest looks to CMA Music Festival officials like a massive success.

Country fans were all over downtown on Thursday. They watched acts all day on the riverfront, packed the Durango Acoustic Stage inside the convention center, waited in lines for autographs from Darryl Worley, Riders in the Sky and many others in the Fan Fair Autograph Hall and even happily broiled on the asphalt outside Bridgestone Arena for the chance to hear Gene Watson's note-perfect rendition of his hit "Farewell Party."